Angry Birds tops 8m downloads on Christmas Day

Angry Birds maker Rovio had something to celebrate this holiday season: more than 8m downloads of the game on Christmas Day alone and 30m downloads during Christmas week (22-29 December).

Rovio chalked up one Angry Birds download for every other new Android or iOS tablet or smartphone, the company said. This amounted to 17.4m activations by the end of 25 December, mobile analytics firm Flurry reported, a possible result of recipients of the devices downloading apps onto their new gadgets.

“Wow, what a year! We released four critically-acclaimed bestselling mobile games, developed two top-rated Facebook games, and reached more than a billion downloads – all before our 3rd ‘Birdday’!”

Rovio’s releases this past year include two games that are now also on Facebook, Angry Birds Space, launched in March, and Angry Birds Star Wars in November. The company also released an Angry Birds spin-off game, Bad Piggies, and a non-Angry Birds game, Amazing Alex.